EP 08 — FOR REAL · MADE HERE
Darius Pemberton
Certified welder whose beads pay thirty dollars an hour
SAMPLE PROFILE — FILM SLOT
His story is coming to the series soon.
Not College Material
Darius Pemberton grew up off Bradley Avenue and fought with school his whole childhood. Reading came slow for him. He sat through years of pull-out classes and heard the phrase not college material before he was old enough to shave.
By his senior year he'd stopped raising his hand at all. He figured he'd end up in a warehouse like half the guys he knew, and he'd almost made peace with it.
A clean weld pays thirty bucks an hour. Nobody told me that at fifteen.
The Bead
A shop teacher watched him cut a straight line with a torch and told him about the welding program at Parkland. Sixteen months. And the reading that slowed him down in English class didn't matter next to a steady hand.
He passed his certification tests at twenty-one. His first fab shop job paid $22 an hour, and a decade in he's north of thirty with overtime on top. The kid who wouldn't raise his hand now signs off on welds that hold up steel buildings.